THP] AXniAL LIFE OP THE GROUP. 419 



beetles ^^ are associated with the weevils. The latter family is represented by 

 a limited number of rare species. These are small beetles that live under the 

 bark of forest trees. It is said that with the engraver beetles the female lays 

 her eggs in the side of the channel which she cuts in the wood under the bark, 

 and that the larvjt when hatched cut channels at right angles to those of the 

 mother, thus forming the curious engraver '.s pattern. 



We come now to the remarkable Hawaiian suout-beetle family,''" which, 

 so far as known, is peculiar to the islands. The 136 species so far described 

 are all referred to a single genus.-''* None of the species exceed four milli- 

 meters in length. They may be at once recognized as members of this family 

 and diftering from the weevils, owing to their long many-jointed antennaj, 

 which are placed at the base of the beak and close to the eyes. 



Most of the species are found about dead and dying forest trees, but some 

 occur in fern stems, and one or two are found in the stems of the maiden-hair 

 fei'u."'" while one species was found by Prof. Swezcy to be a leaf miner. 



The Two- Winged Insects. 



Passing over the order including the fleas,''" as they have been mentioned 

 in another connection, the next order embraces the two-winged insects ^^ of 

 which the house fly, the fruit-fly, the melon-fly, the lantana-fly and the mos- 

 quito may be taken as conspicuous introduced examples that play important 

 roles on both sides of the balance sheet of insect economy in the islands. The 

 life histories of any of the foregoing species may be easily and profitably 

 worked out in the class-room. 



The larva? are usually footless, whitish creatures called maggots that revel 

 in all sorts of filth, as stable manure, decaying fruit, in fresh and stagnant 

 water, in the eai'th, about roots of plants and a variety of unsvispected places. 

 The larva? and the pupa? of the mosquito are known as wrigglers, and in this 

 stage are a favorite food for certain species of fish introduced for the express 

 purpose of preying on them. 



The list of Hawaiian flies prepared by ^Ir. P. H. Grimsham in l!)(ll-2 indi- 

 cated 188 species as belonging to the fauna. Since then a number of species have 

 been added, so that, native and introduced, there are more than two hundred 

 kinds of flies known to occur in the islands. Some of them are beneficial, 

 others are troublesome, l)ut the great ma.iority of them are rare mountain 

 forms seldom met with. 



More than twent.y-five families are represented by from one to several 

 species, among them the fungus-gnats, ''^ the moth-like flies, •'^ the mosquitoes, ^^ 

 the window flies ;^'' the long-legged flies,"'' of which there are a few interesting 

 native species ; the big-eyed flies,"" parasites on leaf -hoppers ; the syrphus 

 flies,'"^ the flesh flies,"" the typical flies,"" including the horn fly, blue-bottle 

 fly, house fly, sheep-maggot fly and stable fly (the latter now believed by 



* ScolytidcE. ^^ Proterhinidce. =8 Proterhinus. ^* Pteris. ""^ Siphonaptera. 



^^ Diptera. "2 UycetophUidtE. "'^ PitttrhndidtP. «* Curnlidfr. "^ Scenopinida>. 



"'^ DoHchopodida'. ^~ Piptind/Udw. '^^ Sf/rphidtr. '^^ Sarropha/jidtr. '" J/h.sj>i 



